SugarCoated Paths
by Arella Grayson
Summary: -Halloween ONE-SHOT- Raven has always been known to be the Queen of Boredom, but all it'll take is a single compliment to make her creativity shine. -StarRae FRIENDSHIP-


Author's Note: Every now and then, I have an uber-weird idea for a story that's, once again, based off something really stupid in my life that for some reason, I can remember.

This time, it's the one tradition I have at Halloween.

I am/was raised in a Christian home, where Halloween was NOT celebrated, for mother claimed it was an evil holiday or something like that, so I never went trick-or-treated, or did the costume thing, or even got candy.

However, my best friend in the entire world would come over every year with his candy he got from his trick-or-treating, and we'd sit for hours doing one thing with it...

Read on to see...

**WARNING WARNING WARNING**

_This story is crappy._

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Quiet. Perfect, uninterupted, peaceful quiet.

The one sign that something was about to happen.

The one sign... that chaos was around the corner.

Raven stood stock still just on the inside of the door, not daring to open it for fear of what might be waiting for her on the other side. There was no screaming, no yelling, no sounds of gunfire from videogames, no sound whatsoever. Just perfect quiet. Something was terribly wrong. Either all the Titans had been captured, or killed, because at nine in the morning, there was always fighting of some sort that would interupt her meditation.

There was probably some horrible trap waiting for her when she opened her door, much like a few weeks before when Beastboy had 'strategicly' placed a trap outside Robin's door, and he came downstairs for breakfast coated in blue dye. It took him weeks to get the baby-blue color out of the whites of his mask. Now that she thought back, it _had_ been rather amusing.

But, on the other hand, she couldn't just stay in the room out of fear all day... surely one of the other Titans, unless they were all in on the prank, would come to get her, which would probably be more annoying than the first idea.

Sighing, Raven opened the door, and within two seconds, a paper skeleton with blazing eyes dropped from the ceiling into her doorway, a roaring sound coming from a radio ducttaped to the ceiling above. She stood there, showing no emotion, no shock, no fear... nothing.

Letting out a groan, Beastboy came around the corner, remote control in hand, his body hanging in defeat.

"Aww... Raven. You're no fun, you know that?"

Raven cocked an eyebrow at him, and pushed the idiotic decoration out of her way as she stepped into the hallway. "Yes, I'm quite aware that I lack _fun_." she spat off darkly, and began her journey to the kitchen to get her morning cup of herbal tea. "Get that thing away from my room before I come back."

Sighing heavily, Beastboy turned from her as she walked past, morphed into an emerald-colored bat, and began to take the paper skeleton down from the ceiling.

"You take _all_ the fun out of Halloween too!" he called back to her once human again, and standing upright on the floor. She made no comment in reply.

Yes, it was that time of year once again, right around the time the air becomes crisp and cold, and the leaves have almost all fallen from the trees. The cable channels were full of specials and movies dedicated to scaring the crap out of people, and stores were filled with black and orange decorations. Cheesy-looking costumes filled racks at almost every clothing store in the mall, and candy was the hot topic on children's minds.

Normally, Raven would've loved the darker side of this holiday...

But around here, there _was_ no darker side to Halloween.

A piercing scream filled the large lounge-like room just as Raven walked into it, and she would've jumped, had her emotions not been completely in line. Starfire was latched tightly onto Cyborg's side, despite the fact that he was in side-splitting laughter that was directed towards her. Robin, not too far away, had also slid into much the same laughter.

The red-head's eyes were wide with a mixture of fear and shock, and soon she relaxed, letting go of the tall cybornetic teen, and staring hard at the orange plastic bowl in the middle of the counter they all stood around.

"I... do not see what is so amusing." she spoke with a slight bit of hurt in her voice, and Raven couldn't help but feel bad for her. It wasn't often that the boys took advantage of her naivety, but every now and then, they couldn't help themselves.

Stepping down the last stair, she caught Starfire's attention, and immediately the young Tamaranian flew towards her, eyes still filled with shock. She pointed an accusing finger to the bowl on the counter as the boys simply laughed harder.

"Raven! That horrible creation took hold of me while I tried to collect a piece of sugary substance!" she cried much like a child telling on another to it's mother. Raven cocked an eyebrow again and sighed, walking over to the counter. She reached forward, put her hand in the bowl, and watched, unamused, as the plastic hand attatched to it came down and grabbed her, followed by a raspy electronic evil laugh.

Raven rolled her eyes towards the boys and gave an irritated sigh. "Seriously... do you boys have nothing better to do with your time?"

"No." both answered at the same time, their laughter calming down at the dark scowl on Raven's face. Starfire clutched innocently onto the back of Raven's cloak, still watching the bowl uneasily. It didn't take long for Robin to feel bad, mutter her an apology, and turn to go back to watching television on the couch... but his tin friend simply stood there with an irritated look on his face.

"Ya know, Raye... you seriously need to chill. Have some fun once in awhile."

Raven's scowl darkened further. "I am 'chill', thank you. Now..." she waved the titan off before turning and picking the bowl of candy up to be out of Starfire's concern. "... go... play video games."

"Or.. at least show some frickin' creativity now and then. Ya know what I mean... do somethin' other than just your stupid books and hidin' in your room all the time."

A soft growl came from the girl's mouth.

"God... just go play your game."

Making a face, Cyborg obeyed and followed suit of his multi-colored companion, and sat on the couch, and within moments both boys were completely caught up in their game, yelling insults at each other.

Raven rolled her eyes, and pulled up a small stool to the counter, sitting down on it with a sigh.

Starfire, now no longer worried about the evil bowl, returned to what she had been doing before... and Raven eyed her suspiciously. In the red-head's hands was a large, clear mixing bowl, filled with a white fluffy substance that she continued to stir gently. It looked almost as if Starfire was having fun simply mixing the contents of the bowl together, and it took Raven a moment to realise what she was making.

Frosting.

Pure white frosting... enough for six dozen cookies.

"Uh... Starfire?"

The bright green orbs turned to her, followed by just as bright of a smile. "Yes, friend Raven?"

So perky Raven could've cringed... and she almost did.

"Why are you making frosting?"

To Raven's surprise, she didn't get a long, dragging answer, but simply was given a shrug, with a smile attatched. "I enjoy frosting."

"... yeah." Raven said slowly, watching her uneasily. "... frosting."

Starfire beamed happily, and ran her finger along the inside edge of the bowl, then licked it off with a content 'mmm' sound.

Immediately, the bowl was thrust into the goth's face, causing her to lean back in her seat.

"Do try some! It is very delicious, and edible!"

Raven couldn't help a chuckle under her breath, but sighed, and dipped her pinky finger into the white frosting, and gently sucked it off. She smirked, and nodded.

"Yes, it's good."

Starfire set the bowl down on the counter and clasped her hands together with a happy grin. "Joyous! I have finally completed a recipe from one of the books of the cooking!"

Raven just shook her head with another smirk, reaching over into the mess of candies that littered the counter to grab the box of graham crackers.

That was the one thing that the Titans knew about her... her secret love of chocolate-flavored graham crackers. It was obvious when upon buying a box for 'the hell of it' as Cyborg commented, Raven had entered the room, and the box had disappeared. That evening, they found the box sitting in the trashcan outside Raven's room. Ever since, they always kept a box or four on hand for her to snack on instead of the chips or popcorn they preferred.

Opening the plastic around the crackers, Raven glanced up towards the now-quiet alien princess, and sighed.

"Do you think I'm boring, Star?"

"Yes."

Raven almost dropped her open package of graham crackers at the abrupt, and cool-sounding answer. She hadn't expected that... and even if it was what she thought, she expected Star to sugar-coat it like she normally did.

"You are, in fact, quite sullen. I have never seen you have fun with us." Starfire explained quietly, eyes fixed upon the frosting she had taken upon stirring again.

Raven never spoke a word.

"The most fun I have seen you having with us, is when you assisted Robin in the completion of the broken picture."

"Puzzle." Raven corrected, and Starfire gave a short nod of acknowledgment. "Yes, I did like doing that..."

Starfire practically beamed at getting her friend to admit enjoying something, and put her bowl down, clasping her hands together once more. That was the universal sign of 'oh my god, I'm so happy I could explode'... at least in Raven's mind.

"We shall go out and buy another.. puzzle!"

Raven waved the comment off, and broke one of her chocolate crackers in half, and stuck the edge of one half in her mouth as she played absently with the other. Breaking that half in half, she balanced the pieces against each other until they stood up on their own like a sort of structure.

Starfire watched in amazement, then her perkiness fell slightly as the pieces of graham cracker did too, unsupported by anything.

Raven took the graham cracker out of her mouth, and motioned for Starfire to come closer to her, and once again balanced the crackers against each other. She found it amusing to watch Star's responce to the simpliest things, and she was sure by this one trick, she'd have Starfire amazed for hours.

Dipping her finger into the bowl of frosting once more once the princess was near, Raven ran the frosting between two of the cracker's edges, then pushed them together and set them down, leaving them in a corner-like shape.

Starfire gasped in delight.

"They remain standing! Fascinating!"

Raven smirked, and repeated the process until she made a small box out of the dark brown chocolate crackers, the girl staring at her work the entire time.

"You are quite talented, Raven!" Starfire cooed as, for no reason whatsoever, Raven continued to add to the creation with a graham-cracker roof. Slowly, it began to look like a simple model of a house... almost like a gingerbread house.

"Nah..." the word slid off Raven's tongue easily, and she shrugged her shoulders. "It's simple really. Look."

Taking one of the M&M's Cyborg had sitting on the counter near her, she stuck it to one of the chocolate walls using the frosting.

"Fascinating!" Starfire repeated, and Raven began to notice her friend looking much like a young child at Christmas. She also began to notice... how much she was enjoying this task of entertaining her friend. God forbid someone find out about this...

"Yeah." Raven spat off quickly, and began to stand from her stool.

Starfire never noticed her movement as her gaze remained transfixed on the cracker house, the smile on her face making Raven wonder if it was simply stuck there. Shaking her head, the indigo-haired girl picked up her novel from among the bags of candy, and wandered over to her usual spot on the couch, and opened it, diving in head-first into her world of darkness and horror.

-----

Raven glanced up at the television for the twenty-millionth time that morning. Okay, so it was only about the sixteenth, but that was enough to bore her. Her book was completed, along with the others she had rented out from the library over the weekend, and she had literally nothing better to do than sit there on the couch and watch the boys as their minds burnt to a crisp.

Some life...

Standing, Raven stretched, and made a slight face when her back made a soft popping sound in reaction.

"Ow..." she mumbled under her breath, and cast a glance to the boys, all leaned forward towards the screen, biting their bottom lips, eyes carrying a far-away look to them. Rolling her eyes, Raven groaned and walked towards the small kitchen area.

Maybe that cup of tea would be a good thing for her to have right about now... before her mind rotted right along side theirs.

Starfire had long since given up on her fellow teammates in her wish to 'do the hanging out', and had simply left the Tower to go to the mall on her own. Now, Raven wished she had agreed to go with her instead of having to hang out with the zombie triplets all afternoon. Trying on half-a-dozen princess or angel costumes that Starfire picked out for her would have been _much_ better than this torture..

Sighing, Raven pulled a dark blue mug from one of the cabinets, and turned to set it on the counter while she started up a kettle of water, but stopped. There, sitting in the middle of the counter, still surrounded by endless open bags of candy, sat the chocolate graham-cracker house, firmly attatched to a flat black plate by a good deal of white frosting.

Raven rolled her eyes with a smirk, abandoning her mug and teabag to sit down on the stool once more, turning the plate to examine Starfire's work.

Had the edible house impressed her that much? It was just a bunch of crackers held together by a sugary paste... nothing more.

Sighing in a mixture of boredom, frustration, and other emotions Raven couldn't put a finger on, she stared long and hard at the house, not really thinking about anything. That's what happens when boredom engrains itself into your head... you begin to stare at nothing, think of nothing... just _exist_.

But... the more she stared at it... the more it began to aggrivate her.

Something was wrong with it...

The walls were even, the triangle-shaped roof was secure... but something seemed to be out of place.

Then she spotted it. That stupid little red M&M attatched to the side of the house seemed to ooze the word 'error' at her. It was placed near the top of the wall, nowhere near the center, and stuck out like a sore thumb.

Okay maybe Cyborg was right... she was a perfectionist... but at least this gave her something to do.

Licking her fingers first, she plucked the tiny candy from the side of the house, and cleaned off the frosting from it.

Great, now it just looked dull and boring. That was even worse.

Raven set her chin in her hand and cast a tired, bored glance towards the giant screen just as Cyborg's fighter cleared the hitpoints of both Robin and Beastboy's characters. An echoing 'booya' was followed by whines of protest, and before Raven could comment at them, one of the boys declared a rematch, and soon they were all sucked back into the game again.

Boys...

Could they be any more stupid?

Sighing, Raven turned back to her boring creation, and out of the corner of her eye, saw the bowl of white frosting sitting on the edge of the counter.

Without another thought, but with somewhat of a groan at the realization that she had hit a new low, Raven pulled the bowl towards her, along with the plate that held her dull little creation.

So... Cyborg wanted her to show a bit more 'creativity' in her life, huh?

She might as well...

-----

"Dude..."

"It's so intricate..."

"Intricate?"

"It's fancy. Has lots of details."

"Oh. Yeah it's intricate!"

Starfire raised a slim eyebrow as she entered the large main room, different colors of paper and plastic bags hanging from her arms from her trip to the 'mall of the shopping'. Crowded around the end of the bright yellow counter was all three boys, all jabbering on and on about something that had been placed there.

Her curiousity always seemed to 'abound', and this time was no exception as she dropped her bags beside the counter where a cross-legged Raven sat, deep into reading one of her books over again.

Two amethyst eyes raised to her, but fell back onto the book in hand.

"Why are you all making such joyous commotion?" Starfire chirped happily as she practicly skipped towards them. All three boys tore their eyes from the creation in the middle of them, and moved aside for her to see.

Starfire let out a bright, cheerful gasp, and immediately lifted her eyes to a now-smirking Raven, who was casting a glance at her from the corner of her eye.

Sitting in front of her was the cutest little creation the Tamaranian had ever since. The simple brown crackers had been transformed into a gorgeous spectical of frosting and candies.

Tiny chocolates, gumdrops, candy corn, and licorice pieces lined the house to create the impression of windows and doors, and rickety siding... even a chimney attatched to the top.

The plate was covered in a thin layer of chocolate rice cereal that looked to be almost like dead grass, or wood choppings like those scattered around a playground for the children to run upon. Sticking up from the 'ground' was small black licorice trees, held in place by a decent amount of frosting under the cereal, and surrounding the entire plate were nibbled-off pieces of pretzels, making a jagged fence. The final touch, a few nibbled-off wafer cookies sticking up from the ground, licorice attatched to them to spell 'RIP'.

"Dude... this is way better than my idea of the fake spiderwebs." Beastboy cooed, leaning down to look closer at the small house for a moment before standing up straight to look over at Raven. "So did'ju make it?"

Raven simply shrugged and responce, causing a few confused looks between the boys, and a smile on Starfire's face.

"I know who'll be making the gingerbread house at Christmas this year." Robin joked as he poked one of the 'tombstones' with a smirk. "Not just anyone can write with licorice and frosting."

A roll of amethyst eyes, and Raven returned to ignoring their compliments towards her.

But Starfire knew her better than that. All her years of living in Titans Tower, Raven had simply wanted to fit in, be complimented once in awhile, or most times just noticed by them. It wasn't too much to ask for, but she was always the one who was overlooked, or possibly ignored.

Starfire knew that even though Raven would deny it until the day she died, the gothic girl was secretly sucking in every compliment sent her way by the boys. She could tell it by the glow that was slowly starting to become noticable on Raven's face the more the boys obsessed over the piece of artwork.

"You're quite talented, Raven. Must have some serious artistic ability in there."

That one comment caused a soft smile to break onto Raven's face, and her eyes lifted to the masked ones of Robin. "Yeah... probably from my mother."

"So you _did_ make it! Wicked cool!"

Within seconds, Beastboy had bounded over to the couch, perched a little too close to Raven for her own comfort, gazing intently at her.

"You think you could make me one?"

Raven's eyes slowly focused onto the eager ones of her younger teammate, and she began to scowl, causing the green-skinned teenager to slink back slightly. Okay, maybe that was a bit too perky for the Queen of Darkness...

With a heavy sigh as her personal space was returned to her, Raven lifted her book again, leaning back against the corner of the couch. Groaning softly, as she felt Beastboy's hurt eyes still fixed upon her, she quietly gave in.

"If I do, will you leave me alone?"

"No..."

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End file.
